The State Board of Education oversees the state's School Readiness and VPK programs. Within the Florida Department of Education, the Division of Early Learning is assigned powers, duties, responsibilities, and functions related to administering these and other early learning programs. Specifically, the department is responsible for developing and adopting performance standards for students in the VPK Program and for VPK Program accountability (ss. 1002.67 and 1002.73, Florida Statutes).
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is responsible for the licensing and credentialing of early learning providers. Currently, DCF child-care licensing staff are responsible for the inspection and licensure of child-care facilities and homes in 62 out of 67 counties as well as registration of family day care homes in those counties which do not require licensure. Five counties (Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Sarasota) have elected to regulate licensing of child-care facilities and homes.
The Office of Early Learning evaluates how well children do on statewide assessments before and after receiving school readiness services. The Voluntary School Readiness Child Assessment system provides teachers, child care providers, and parents a tool to guide instruction, document learning, and development over time, and will complement developmentally-appropriate curriculum.
The Department of Education, in collaboration with the Office of Early Learning, operates a statewide, standardized coordinated screening and progress monitoring system for VPK and public schools. Participation in this screening and progress monitoring system is required for all public and private VPK providers.
Section 1008.25(8), Florida Statutes, requires the monitoring system to measure student progress in meeting the appropriate expectations in early literacy and mathematics skills and in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics standards, and identify the educational strengths and needs of the students. Florida statutes also require the monitoring system to provide baseline data to the department of each student's readiness for kindergarten, based on the results of each student's initial assessment when beginning kindergarten.
Each VPK provider must participate in a department-led assessment for each education classroom in the VPK program. The observation and assessment measures the quality of teacher-child interactions, emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support for children ages 3 to 5 years. This observation must account for no less than 50% of the school provider's performance metric.
The other 50% of the performance metric is based on the changes or improvements in student learning gains from the initial progress monitoring to the final progress monitoring results, combined with other developmental learning outcomes. These metrics include literacy skills, oral communication, knowledge of print and letters, vocabulary, and early math skills.
Yes. If a provider's performance metric falls below the minimum designation, the early learning coalition must require the provider to submit and implement an improvement plan, place the provider on probation, and require certain corrective actions. If the provider remains on probation for two consecutive years without meeting the minimum performance designation, their eligibility to provide the VPK program is revoked. In addition, if a provider's program assessment composite score does not meet the minimum required score, the provider may not participate in the VPK program in the consecutive year until they raise their score.
Fund | Dollars | Positions | |
---|---|---|---|
EARLY LEARNING | |||
PROGRAM: EARLY LEARNING SERVICES |
2,540,876,805
|
98.00 |
|
TOTAL |
2,540,876,805 |
98.00 |
Other Reports
A complete list of Auditor General reports is available on its website
2020-21 Annual Report, Division of Early Learning
Websites of Interest
Children's Defense Fund
Children's Forum
Department of Children and Families, Child Care Regulation
Performance Information
Division of Early Learning (VPK and School Readiness), 1-866-357-3239
Website